Thursday, September 8, 2016

Normalcy and the G20

G20 and the Concept of Normalcy

So I am watching the news about the G20 summit of world leaders in China this past week. Such drama, such brinksmanship, important matters of state and economics were discussed, feathers were ruffled. It was all great global media.

As I sipped my Martini and my wife played Words with Friends while Obama walked the dignitary line a light bulb went off over my head. Wait a minute I thought something is missing here. But Reuters, CBSN and Fox aren’t telling what it is. What the heck is up here?

A quick tour around Wikipedia tells us this; “The G20, is the latest in a series of post-World War II initiatives aimed at international coordination of economic policy,...... The G20 superseded theG33 (which had itself superseded theG22), and was foreshadowed at the Cologne Summit of theG7 in June 1999, but was only formally established at the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting on 26 September 1999.”

So basically, what I am being told is that these countries are getting together to discuss economic policy as well as the trade and foreign policy that it may affect. OK…...isn’t that what the United Nations is supposed to be for? My assumption at this point is that the G20 is an invitation only club for countries that reach a specific GNP (Gross National Product) number?

Much like my recent post on the “Wounded Warrior Project” (that I pretty much hit the bull's eye on) this whole G20 exercise seems to be painted by the media as a great thing that we should all approve of. But, in effect, it seems like the big boys getting together to carve up the rest of the planet for their own mutual gain. I assume that if you are Uganda or Iceland, you have sit on the sidelines and see what the big boys decide.

This all gives me Deja Vu. Before I retired, one of my jobs was working with an oversight agency in Arizona State Government that audited the doings of Child Protective Services (CPS). We held hearings and produced reports showing how well / poorly CPS was doing it’s job. Usually is was doing it pretty poorly.

Then, one day we got wind of a new process that CPS was doing called the “Child and Family Team Meetings” (CFT) that also produced reports to the court regarding the status of the children in question. We never saw these reports, because they went straight to the Juvenile Court Judge that oversaw the case.

Fast forward four years and I am about to retire. I have a new job working at a county court in southern Arizona. I am one of the few court workers that get to handle the Juvenile court files for the county. In looking through one that was being processed, I came across a copy of a CFT that had been sent to the court, along with the reports from my old agency. Guess what? They were exact copies in format and content, only the CPS version painted a much more rosy picture.

Moral of the story? If you don’t like the conversation, start a new one. If you don’t like the way things are going, start a competing enterprise that is more favorable to your point of view.

Who needs the headache of putting up with that pesky U.N. and their resolutions. Hello G20!!!!